Of Wounds and Werewolves
by artemis-nz
Summary: Sirius takes care of things the night after another full moon. Vague Sirius/Remus.


**I said I was never going to write a Harry Potter fanfic. sighs But the plot bunny wouldn't go away, so here we are - my first abd possibly only piece of HP writing. Very short fic, Sirius/Remus. Enjoy.**

* * *

**  
**

Remus Lupin hissed in pain, teeth clenched together and fists gripping the sheets upon which he lay, face down and head turned to the side.

"Yeah, well, if you could just stay still-"

"It _hurts_! It's just instinct, I can't help it."

"Nearly done", Sirius murmured. "Just a sec... there", he said, obviously satisfied with his handiwork. "All done."

"Thanks... might I suggest you not go into the Healing business, by the way?"

Sirius put on a wounded expression, although Remus was still facing away from him. "That's not a nice thing to say, after all my hard work. Sneaking into the hospital wing, stealing some of that ointment (even if it does smell really bad), and then having to put up with all your moving around that it's any wonder I got everything done at all-"

"All right, all right. Ow..." He winced as he sat up.

"Hurt still?"

"Just a bit stiff, and it burns when I move... nothing too bad though, loads better than it was", he said, mostly to reassure Sirius. Not that Sirius actually sounded too concerned - he was far too good at acting his usual joking, careless self - but Remus was getting to know him well and knew better.

"Good. You'll have a few good scars though", he continued more cheerfully. "Too bad they're on your back, though, nobody'll be able to see them. Guess I win." He held up his arm so that Remus could see the jagged gash that ran down in a long line, almost straight from elbow to wrist.

"God, Padfoot, I'm so sorry-"

"Shut up, it doesn't matter. Besides, like I was saying, I can at least show off mine. Think I'll say I fought off a Basilisk or something."

"Still, it was my fault. Does it hurt much? It's far bigger than the cuts I've got, are you sure-"

"You worry too much, you know that? If James was back from detention he'd tell you to shut up too. We've gone over it a hundred times - it was our own choice from the beginning. And anyway, we promised. Hardly the time to go soft on us now, Mooney."

"What about James? Is he okay?"

"He's fine except for the detention. The idiot got caught by that bloody cat on the way in last night, his own fault. Got taken straight to the professor for that stunt."

Remus looked up, now slightly panicked. "Sirius, last night, I don't even remember coming back in...!" Sirius didn't reply, just looked grim for a minute. "What happened?" asked Remus, urgently. The gap in his memory must have meant that whatever happened had not been good.

"It was... well, to tell you the truth, you were pretty bad, mate. You were barely even conscious - at the time we thought you must have been hurt bad. We got back into the castle okay . Peter stuck to his rat form so us three could have the inviability cloak and we were dragging you back to the tower - you're actually pretty heavy, by the way - when James got caught by the cat. We're getting a bit tall for us all to fit under the cloak now, she must have seen James' feet or something. She made a hell of a noise for such a scrawny thing, and we heard Filch come running. James decided to be all noble and told me to get you back to the tower while he stuck around on purpose; said you needed seeing to as soon as possible. So I took off and Peter stayed with you while I made off with some supplies from the hospital wing. By the time I got back up here you were dead to the world, so we fixed you up as best we could by wand-light - we couldn't risk waking anyone else up. Then James came back and we patched ourselves up and called it a night."

"... I see. And Peter's alright as well?"

"Not a scratch on him. But there's already rumors going around that the ghosts were in a particularly violent mood last night down in the Shrieking Shack." For all Sirius had suffered what had probably been a very painful wound, he looked extremely pleased with himself. When Remus didn't answer, the expression vanished to be replaced with one of curiosity. "Any idea why you were a bit more... er, energetic than usual? Me and Prongs definitely had our work cut out for us trying to keep you in check..."

"No idea. I remember I wasn't feeling so well the day before - worse than usual, I mean. Maybe that had something to do with it. Someone should hurry up and publish a book."

"Yeah, I can see it now: 'One Hundred Tips of a Highly Successful Werewolf.' Maybe you should write it."

Remus flopped back down with a groan of frustration. "I'm so glad it's the weekend."

"Me too. Though James might be a bit concerned, seeing as he still hasn't finished that History of Magic essay and you probably not being up to writing it for him..."

Finally, a smile. Relieved, Sirius got up. "A whole month before you have to look forward to the next one", he reminded him. "Plenty of time to get up to some mischief before then." He stood up and stuck his hands in his pockets, looking remarkably nonchalant. "Think I'm gonna go see if I can find where James is doing his detention. You should rest up." And he walked out without another word, leaving Remus to his thoughts.


End file.
